


Life on the Rocks

by Anonymous



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alien Biology, Getting Together, M/M, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-19 03:33:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29868501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Jianyu didn't want to put down roots on Ideal Next, didn't want to get to know the people there, wanted to be able to pack up and leave at any time. Still, what could talking to the bartender hurt? It's not like someone working at one of the most prestigious downtown bars in town would do more than make light conversation with a man like Jianyu - even if it seems like they can talk for hours.
Relationships: Lonely Male Human With Criminal Past/Male Alien Bartender, Original Male Character/Original Male Character
Comments: 6
Kudos: 14
Collections: Five Figure Fanwork Exchange 2020





	Life on the Rocks

**Author's Note:**

  * For [architeuthis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/architeuthis/gifts).



Through the window of the Gold Bar on the forty-fourth floor of the Purohit Tower, Jianyu had a great view over Ideal Next. The sprawling behemoth of a city rose out of the jungles of Zeta-Eight, a planet at the western edge of the known galaxy. It was named after the company that had founded it, but as far as Jianyu knew, Ideal Next had gone under in the first of several all-out wars between independent multi-stellar corporation states about seventy years ago. Other companies ruled here now, and ostensibly some government, but the name had stuck and the city’s telltale shape had never changed, either: Just like in the old photos he’d seen on the city council’s website, Ideal Next’s skyline was still ruled by floating shapes that topped already high towers. They were only connected to their bases by a thin metal rod usually surrounding an elevator and emergency staircases that did nothing to hold up the giant structures balanced on their tips, which were instead kept in place through alien marvels of magnetism and electronics that went way above Jianyu’s head. Some of these floating pieces looked like decorations, massive baubles; others had been designed to seem risky on purpose, creating top-heavy silhouettes where the floating part was five or ten times the size of the bottom that stood on the earth; yet others rose in a complex web of many interconnected, smaller building blocks like massive postmodern statues you could walk around in. Even the buildings that had no floating rooms, like the one Jianyu was in right now, ran up sharp like needles or unfolded like flowers or had delicate decorative structures on their roofs that made them reach for the sky in more interesting ways than the usual collection of block-shaped high-rises and skyscrapers human cities tended towards. In the night, these strange buildings were all outlined by blinding brushstrokes of multicoloured lights spelling company names and outlining advertisements. 

Jianyu still liked to stare at the sights like a tourist fresh from the ship, just like he had on his first day here three months ago, but if anything could divert his attention at the Gold Bar, it was the head bartender, who was now politely gesturing at him from behind the polished, dark wooden bar.

With a bow of his head towards tonight’s employer, Jianyu stepped away from the table. The Gold Bar was outfitted like the kind you saw in old movies from Terra from the 21st Century: clean lines and no fringes, all furniture made of wood so dark it looked almost black, discreet lighting, an array of bottles lined up behind the bar, framed photos of cities on Terra on the wall. Since Ideal Next was still mostly a nest for humans, this appeal to nostalgia made sense, though of course the aesthetic was by now a good six hundred years outdated.

The only thing that didn’t match the old world feel was Saghiza, the man standing in front of the many bottles. Jianyu had had to look up what species he was on the extranet because Zarussans were that rare outside their home system. He was the height of a tall human and covered in deep red, thin, shimmering, scales that put Jinayu in mind of the skin of a snake. He figured the association had also sprung into his mind because of the long tail that so often swerved industriously behind Saghiza. Without looking over his shoulder, he was currently sorting empty plates onto the shelves with habitual ease while in the front he was busy arranging two glasses with whiskey and a small plate of shrimp tartlets on a tray with his hands that had six long, graceful fingers each, ending in sharp claws. Jianyu also took a moment to admire his silky black hair as he sauntered over, which was pulled back in a tight braid that was apparently traditional Zarussan fashion, according to the extranet. It did a lot to make more prominent the long face, sharp chin, high cheekbones and four large, round, entirely black eyes, sorted in a row next to each other, two and two separated by a nose that was broad and flat like that of a feline. The black dress pants and waistcoat matched with a snow-white shirt fit his form well, though they were human clothes. 

“I gather you want to serve these yourself, Mr. Liu?” Saghiza asked.

He spoke Standard Stellar English without a translator, meaning he must have actually learned the language, something people rarely bothered with these days. Jianyu was happy for it, though, because his accent smoothed the words of his deep and sonorous voice, let them run together like a song, and placed small, hissing emphasis on sharper sounds. The translator would have stolen these nuances.

Jianyu gave a nod. The first thing he’d liked about Saghiza, aside from the looks that he kept getting hung up on, was that he was clever. He’d understood Jianyu’s role from the first evening he’d come here, hovering behind the chair of one of the many business big shots he’d gotten to know through Lighthouse, the private security agency that had hired him. The people who brought Jianyu along didn’t want any staff listening in on their conversations, so Saghiza worked around that issue without a word of complaint. Of course, considering how many customers had dragged him to this place, Jianyu expected the combination of someone in an expensive suit and the bodyguard in a cheaper one trailing behind them with a gun visible at the hip wasn’t unusual here. The Gold Bar was the place where you went to impress, but could still discuss matters in somewhat clandestine fashion.

Jianyu carried the tray back to the table, handing out the drinks and appetisers, then went back to give the empty tray back to Saghiza.

“A long meeting tonight,” Saghiza said conversationally, voice low. “That was the third round of drinks.”

Laid out before him where halved peaches, which he cut with speed and precision. There was a kitchen through the door behind the bar, but Saghiza prepared some appetisers in the front. Jianyu didn’t know if he was taking a load off the cook’s shoulders, or whether it was meant as entertainment for bored guests sitting at the bar, or maybe just because every single thing Saghiza cooked tasted awesome and not letting him do it would have been a waste.

“No need to tell me,” Jianyu said under his breath, shifting from one aching foot to another. The dress shoes were uncomfortable to stand in after the third hour.

“With any luck, they will realise they are too drunk to make good decisions,” Saghiza said.

“When has that ever stopped businesspeople?”

Saghiza’s eyes narrowed in amusement. It had taken Jianyu a bit too understand that while Saghiza’s mouth had enticingly full lips that looked very human – at least until he opened them and revealed the many small, narrow teeth and long, pointed tongue –, expecting him to emote like one was bias. The mouth staid slack; the eyes, forehead, and the movements of his tail were the important parts when you wanted to read him.

“Go, you will be missed,” Saghiza told Jianyu mildly.

He was right about that. Jianyu returned to his spot, just far enough behind tonight’s employer that he was out of earshot, just close enough that he could point the gun between someone’s eyes. Whenever he was brought here, it was mostly his job to keep everyone not involved in the meeting at a respectful distance and look intimidating. He was rather short and, while muscular, not the broad bear of a man you’d expect for such a job. However, he had a leg up because he’d had to have his eyes replaced with cybernetic implants after getting them taken out in a gang fight, which left him with silver irises that made every glance look like a flash of a knife, and the stone-faced expression did the rest to convince people he meant business. It was not for show, either. Jianyu had killed men with his bare hands, though in his defence, he’d only done it if they had tried killing him first.

His bright eyes went back to the nervous young man his employer was facing, nailing him for a moment with his gaze before he turned his head again to look out the window, watching the meeting in the reflection instead.

It was another hour until he could finally lead his employer to the door. The man stopped him there, however.

“I still have a few private calls to make,” he said. “My secretary ordered a cab. You’re off.”

“Of course. Have a good evening.”

The man did not acknowledge him anymore as he walked towards the elevator, already pulling out his phone. People like that had decidedly too much money to consider Jianyu worth their time when he wasn’t on the clock. Considering he’d forgotten this guy’s name half an hour into the evening, he couldn’t pretend to be heartbroken, though, as long as he could bill him for the overtime.

It was one in the morning already and he was on again tomorrow, so he should have crawled back to that hole in the wall he rented and gone to sleep. However, that meant he wouldn’t have talked to anyone but the moneybags who hired him for a week straight now, unless he worked up the energy to hit up a club and take someone home for the night – and that didn’t usually lead to riveting conversation, though it could be fun it other ways. The truth was that neither his random hook-ups nor the people he met at work were anywhere near as fun to be around as Saghiza.

_One drink can’t hurt._

He turned back and sat down at the bar, in the corner by the wall, which usually wasn’t too crowded except for a few tired salaraymen and –women nursing drinks while staring at their persocomms. Saghiza did not look surprised to see him back.

“Which drink?”

“Anything with gin?” Jianyu suggested.

Saghiza contemplated the bottles behind him, then picked one with his tail while reaching for a glass and a shaker.

“A simplified Smaragd,” he explained, as he began pouring ingredients into the shaker. “I’d grind the pandan leave fresh and mix it with grated apples if I had the time. This is pandan syrup, gin, with lime and apple juice.”

“No wonder you also cook. Your cocktails sound more involved than the meals I make at home.”

Saghiza chuckled, a stone-on-stone rumbling sound that Jianyu had come to enjoy hearing. “Do you actually cook?” he asked gently.

“No,” Jianyu admitted with a smile. “I don’t even have a fridge. I do have an oven!”

“So all hope is not lost,” Saghiza said flatly, rattling the shaker. “You are young, after all, Mr. Liu.”

“Thirty-two. By forty, I might have my life together,” Jianyu said. It was a joke, since at this point, he seriously doubted it. “But your lifespan is similar to a human’s, isn’t it? You’re only ten years older than me, give or take.”

He didn’t really remember how he knew that. The evenings he’d spent sitting at this bar ran together, dotted with comfortable conversation whenever Saghiza had a moment, and there had been quite a lot of them by this point.

“They were eventful ten years,” Saghiza only said as he poured light green liquid into a cone-shaped cocktail glass, which he pushed towards Jianyu when it was finished.

“Well, I could eat something proper tonight,” Jianyu said, glancing over the bar at Saghiza’s work station. “Do you have ingredients over of whatever that is?”

“Black bread with curry-pineapple dip? I can make some for you, too, or I could bring you the menu.”

“No need, this looks good.”

Jianyu took a sip of his drink. It tasted earthen, like nuts and ripe fruits. He saw Saghiza watching him with interest.

“This one is nice,” he said. “Not too sweet.”

“Isn’t it? I will make note of that. Human taste buds always surprise me. I thought I had adjusted for it.”

“Don’t worry. I’m always willing to be your guinea pig.”

“Guee-neah pig?” Saghiza echoed.

“They’re small rodents...” Jianyu stopped himself, realising he wasn’t sure where the phrase even came from, or what a guinea pig looked like, for that matter. “It’s an idiom. I guess they must have used them for animal testing?”

“That must have been before tube-grown cell clusters and predictive AI. Almost an ancient reference,” Saghiza said, smiling with his eyes again. “Perhaps you have an old soul in some ways, after all.”

Jianyu had to laugh, but before he could think of an answer, Saghiza was flagged down by a woman in an identical outfit to his. Jianyu pulled the tie out of his shoulder-length blue hair as he watched Saghiza move swiftly to the other end of the bar to take an order from the waitress, who still wrote on slips of paper with pencils to keep up the atmosphere of the place.

He took another sip of the drink. Saghiza wasn’t a friend, just a bartender, someone paid to make nice with listless customers like Jianyu. He liked to remind himself of that reality sometimes, especially when he found his tired mind wandering away to wax poetic about Saghiza’s poised movements and marvel at how naturally conversation flowed between them no matter the hour. Making friends had gotten Jianyu into enough trouble, anyway, so this was just perfect the way it was.

-

The next time his feet led him to the Gold Bar was after Jianyu had spent a whole week trailing behind investors in the torrential, warm rain that came down during the summer on Ideal Next. They were looking at real estate in which to place a new office and the conversations had almost put Jianyu to sleep several times despite the astronomical amounts of money that were supposed to change hands. Sometimes, he missed the gun fights just for the diversion; but he didn’t miss jail, so this was still preferable.

However, with business negotiations all day, and every night spent staring at an extranet flyball stream until he fell asleep with an empty take-out box in his lap, he’d started to feel like he’d gotten stuck in a time loop. When the end of his work day left him stranded downtown, he headed straight for the snow-white spire of Purohit Tower, and was soon selecting the topmost button on the elevator.

Saghiza, leaning over the sink, looked up when he saw Jianyu enter and gave him a nod.

“There is no companion tonight?” he asked, when Jianyu had gotten closer.

Jianyu settled down on the high bar stool, lifting his feet up onto the iron circle around the bottom of the chair’s legs, since he was not quite tall enough to get his feet on the ground.

“Just here for food.” Jianyu glanced over the counter. “What have you got?”

“A kitchen in the back, to start off with,” Saghiza said, wiping down a glass, his eyes narrowed with mirth. “You have never ordered real dinner.”

“I’m not sure I could afford real dinner here,” Jianyu answered, leaning his elbows on the bar.

“Why not go further from downtown? Food is more affordable in the outer districts.”

Jianyu raised a brow. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”

“No, Mr. Liu. Who would test my new drinks?” Saghiza answered.

“Indeed. Though I’m surprised I’m never trying anyone else’s drinks. Don’t you ever take a night off?”

“Now are you trying to get rid of me?”

Saghiza said no more than that. Jianyu, who had tried to find out more about Saghiza for weeks now and was getting used to his talent for avoiding probing comments, couldn’t really fault him for it. You didn’t need every nosey customer to know your life story, after all – it was supposed to go the other way around at the bar. Only Jianyu wasn’t about to tell people about his three year stint in jail and his time in a gang that had predated it, either.

“No. I’ve had some of the food from the kitchens,” Jianyu said. “One woman I worked for had me sit down at the table and let me order. You’re the better cook.”

“Do not let our chef hear that.”

Jianyu laughed. “But you’re not disagreeing with me.”

“We have different strengths,” Saghiza answered politely.

“Right,” Jianyu said doubtfully. It had seemed to him the chef’s strengths were minimalist meals with more food colouring than taste, but he supposed they looked impressive. “I’m just worried you’re working too hard.”

Jianyu grabbed the menu. It was expansive, a marker of fancy places like this, where they had the best food storage technologies at hand. Whenever he ordered from the menu, he would just scan the appetisers and pick something out of the middle.

“I do like my job. What about you?” Saghiza asked, eyeing the glass he’d been cleaning critically for any spots.

“I like having a paycheck.”

Saghiza made that small, dark noise in the back of his throat.

“There are worse reasons to work,” he said thoughtfully.

Jianyu glanced sideways at him and saw Saghiza looking out over the clientele, the kind that had made Jianyu aware of this bar in the first place. Right – that would be people doing it for all sorts of unfortunate reasons, starting with greed for ever more money and ending with wanting to impress daddy, and all of them ready to tear a chunk out of the universe to do it. Jianyu couldn’t judge them, didn’t really feel like judging anyone considering the life he’d led, but it was hard to ignore that even in fifteen years of running with a street gang, he hadn’t been able to do as much damage as someone working high up the ladder in an interstellar corporation could with just the press of a button, still holding their afternoon coffee in hand.

Yet he wasn’t going to solve the injustices of the universe tonight, so he turned his attention back to the menu. Towards the end of the list of appetisers, which were all human plus a few popular Gerudian and Half’erian ones that had made it into the human diet ages ago, there were some entries on the list he couldn’t decipher at all.

“What’s this?” he asked, pointing on the menu.

“Zarussan food,” Saghiza said, after taking a look.

“I’ll get one of those, then. Any. It’s not like I know what they are. Plus whatever drink you feel like making.”

Saghiza’s tail twitched in a way that Jianyu had learned to know meant curiosity.

“Really? I don’t get more than one or two orders a month for these. I think the owner let me put them on to make the menu look more interesting.”

“If your human food tastes that this good, your Zarussan food must be great. Besides,” Jianyu smirked, locking eyes with Saghiza, “I’m adventurous.”

“Is that so, Mr. Liu? That sounds like a trait that could get you in trouble. You should be careful what you decide to take on,” Saghiza answered easily, not at all perturbed by the flirting, his eyes lingering on Jianyu’s face for a moment. “But I think I’m a good enough cook that I can at least avoid poisoning you. I will adjust the recipe so that it tastes to you what it would taste like to me...”

The last sentence was said more to himself. When he pulled the ingredients from the high-value freezer and put them in the small instantaneous heating unit on top, Jianyu found it difficult to identify them at all.

“What’s in there, just out of interest?” he asked. “Or is that your secret?”

“Hardly. This is standard fare back where I come from,” Saghiza said, pulling bottles from the shelf. “It would be like a secret recipe to guacamole.”

While he spoke, he poured whiskey, pomegranate and lemon juice, and added a small spoonful of honey, which he stirred with a spoon.

“Here. Zarussan food will probably always be a little tart for humans. This should be sweet enough to balance it.”

“Dessert before dinner? You spoil me.”

“Do not get used to it. You know I prefer the harsher stuff,” Saghiza answered.

Jianyu grinned and took a sip. It was good, not bubble-gum sweet, but with a sour edge. He nodded at Saghiza, who was watching him, and Saghiza turned to take the food out of the heating unit. Jianyu saw some sort of small round fruit of a deep blue colour, like cherry-sized blueberries, and broad yellow leaves. From a cupboard, Saghiza pulled a tin that looked to be filled with a red spice.

Jianyu did not interrupt him. He liked seeing Saghiza work, found it calming in a way, maybe because Saghiza always looked like he was in the middle of meditation when he was cooking or mixing drinks. It wasn’t Jianyu’s flow, but he could drift with it.

Saghiza washed the leaves and fruit, fetched a pan with his tail and spilled oil inside, dropped the leaves on top. While they sizzled, he cut the fruits and freed them of the hard stone inside while continuously moving the pan with his tail. He added the sliced fruits and spice and a pinch of sugar on top, leaving them only for a couple of minutes before he took them off and spread them out on a plate in the shape of a sun. This, he handed to Jianyu with a set of cutlery.

“Nishael fruit and leaves. It’s said they taste best if they come from the same tree and really should be cooked over hot stones. I cannot guarantee these have the same origin, but it might be an interesting experience nonetheless.”

“Smells great,” Jianyu said honestly. It was the scent of a forest after the rain, mixed with something like roasted onions.

Saghiza took a step back, as if to leave him some room for the experience. The pan hissed when he filled it with water to soak.

Jianyu blew on a forkful of leaves and fruit. The leaves were slightly charred, but the fruit still kept their juice. They were bitter, like Saghiza had promised, but the texture and consistency was perfect. Jianyu had to grin at himself as he turned that thought in his head. Usually, he barely tasted whatever greasy corner store food he shoved into his mouth at night.

“Is there something funny about the food?” Saghiza asked.

“Nothing.” Jianyu took a sip of his drink to mix with the bitter taste. “I just feel like you’re turning me into a gourmet here.”

It was hard to read Saghiza sometime, but the way he drew back his shoulders and lifted his chin definitely betrayed a little pride.

“Then I have used my time well.”

-

Eating his way through the Zarussan appetisers and then some of the rarer human stuff was excuse enough to come back to the Gold Bar over the next couple of weeks even when his jobs did not lead him there. Saghiza obviously enjoyed the chance to show off and considering Jianyu always found enough food on his plate that it could have counted as an actual dinner, he didn’t think that he minded Jianyu hanging out.

Saghiza was always good to be around, even when it was a busy evening and he didn’t have much time to talk to Jianyu about drinks, food, Jianyu’s job, Saghiza’s customers, or whatever other topic fell in their laps. Not only was watching the way he worked interesting, but how he talked to the other staff and even unruly customers – firm, yet never raising his voice –, and how he didn’t lose his nerve even when dozens of the old-fashioned paper slips had piled up and the cook was coming out of the kitchen to whisper complaints to him while waitresses and waiters raced across the floor.

“Are you not bored?” Saghiza asked him on one such occasion while slicing a pear. “I do not have much time for you tonight.”

He should have been, Jianyu knew. Probably should have gone somewhere else, tried to strike up conversations with strangers, find some loose acquaintances in the city or at least someone to keep his bed warm. Despite all the disappointment, all the people who’d left him to take the fall alone when push came to shove, putting their shared blame on his back, he was realistic enough to know he wouldn’t spend the next sixty years on this planet or another as a hermit, either. He didn’t plan to put down roots, but he’d get sick of hearing only himself talk, too.

Yet, he hadn’t really met anyone he liked as Saghiza. It felt stupid to say even in his head. After all, he knew next to nothing about the man outside of his job. Feeling smug that the bartender was nice to you was kind of like thinking a prostitute was sleeping with you for the fun of it, even though he liked to tell himself that he didn’t actively annoy Saghiza.

“After a day at work, I’m just happy I’m not the one running around. This place wouldn’t be my scene, though. How do you keep yourself from hitting someone over the head with a broken bottle after hours of this?” Jianyu joked. “You have so much ammunition.”

“It would be a waste of excellent liquor,” Saghiza answered, lifting his wrists up to his shoulders in the way he always did when he shrugged.

-

So far, Jianyu had only washed up at the Gold Bar when he was in an alright mood, tired or annoyed at worst; if he still had the energy to come here at night, the job couldn’t have been too taxing, and the work he did right at the Gold Bar was mostly just boring, aside from Saghiza and the view. This evening, however, he was still fuming by the time he stepped out of the elevator.

It was fifteen minutes before closing time, but when he’d been finished with his job, this just happened to be the closest place he knew where he could get alcohol. He really needed that drink, too, or he’d go back to the ritzy downtown hotel and cuss out his employer. Still, his anger was tempered just slightly by awkwardness when he realised as he walked into the Gold Bar that there was only one person left in the large room usually buzzing with conversation and swift, light-footed wait-staff: it was Saghiza, wiping the bar.

“Mr. Liu?” he asked, his tail rising inquisitively. “You do not look happy.”

Jianyu snorted as he sat down on his chair. No way now but forward – going back into the elevator without a real explanation would have been embarrassing, too.

“Can’t imagine why.”

Saghiza did not react to his bratty answer, only kept looking at him, and Jianyu deflated a little. With a frown, he settled against the corner between the bar and the wall.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to make you mix anything this late. Just give me the strongest drink you have straight out of the bottle. Whatever you usually cook with probably works.”

“I have a better idea.”

After taking a glance behind himself, Saghiza put the damp rag into the sink and picked out a bottle filled with rum the colour of molten resin, pouring its contents into a round-bottomed glass.

“Better liquor takes your mind off things without burning your liver. Don’t worry, you’re paying for the cooking rum.”

“You don’t have to-”

“Drink,” Saghiza said, placing the glass in front of him.

Jianyu gave a lopsided smile as he flicked over the money via his persocomm and then took a sip of the rum. It was smooth and heady, with a hint of cherry in it, but knowing that Saghiza cared enough to give it to him was what made it go down so easily.

“What happened?” Saghiza asked.

Jianyu took another sip.

“Asshole who hired me neglected to inform the agency or me that I’d be walking into active combat. He wanted to get back paperwork some other suit had had stolen from him – white collar crime, don’t ask me. I don’t mind a bit of action, but I’d like to have more than a kid-sized handgun and standard issue protective vest when I’m going up against freaks decked out head to toe in combat implants.” He snorted. “As you see, I made it, and so did he, since I did want him to pay me.” He sighed. “At least it was all off-the-books illegal shit top to bottom. Only thing that would have made this worse is spending the night filling out paper work at the police station.”

Saghiza shook his head. “How reckless of your employer. What happened to the ones you fought?”

“Thugs. Wouldn’t have been much of an issue if I’d had a warning,” Jianyu added darkly. “I knocked them out, but they had all the works. By the time we were heading out with the datapad the guy wanted, they were already waking up again. Probably had a six pack of revival boosters each.”

“Let’s hope they will focus their ire on your employer.”

“Thankfully, it shouldn’t be too easy to track me down. Pretty sure they got I was a hired hand. If my employer has trouble with them, later, though... well, I’m going to ask double pay next time if he comes back and wants my help again.”

Saghiza wrung out his damp towel and hung it over the tap. “That’s reasonable,” he said. “Though it might be better to avoid him entirely. If he was not truthful this time, who knows what surprise he’ll have in store for you next?”

Jianyu swallowed another sip of the rum, and another, emptying the glass.

“I might not have that option with my agency,” he admitted, holding the glass to Saghiza, who took it out of his hand to place it in the dishwasher under the sink, where his utensils wandered when he didn’t need them again right away. “I haven’t been there for too long.”

“No?”

“Haven’t been on this planet for long, either. Must be getting close to four months now, I guess.”

Saghiza nodded his head. “I understand. Sometimes, our choices are limited.” He glanced at the old-fashioned clock on the wall. “I have to close up now. The system times me on punctuality.”

“Yeah, sorry, I don’t mean to keep you.”

Saghiza unlatched a small box from under the counter.

“We can leave together. However, if you plan to steal the money I am about to deposit, I should warn you that I carry a gun.”

It didn’t sound like a serious warning, but somehow Jianyu was still happy that Saghiza had the presence of mind to make it. It never paid to be too trusting. He doubted a bartender waving a piece around could even come close to being a threat to him, but the fact that Saghiza had a weapon was better than nothing, and the way he quickly attached the holster at his hip with one practiced grip meant Saghiza might at least be experienced enough in handling it that he had fired it once or twice.

“Not sure stealing from you would be the best course of action, considering the cameras you no doubt have in this place have probably captured my face from every possible angle by now.” Jianyu pushed himself off the chair. “Do that many people still pay with real credit here, though? No chips or transfer?”

“It’s a particular obsession of our more well-paying customers lately. I don’t question these trends anymore.”

Jianyu grinned. “Yeah, smarter that way.” He glanced at the door. “Hey, you want a bodyguard? Free of charge, for the drink.” He winked. “I guess you do this run every night, but you never know if this is the time you meet someone else with a gun.”

As Saghiza deposited the flat black box in a briefcase of the same colour, he seemed to consider the suggestion for a moment before nodding his head.

“Yes, why not?”

Saghiza shut off all lamps by flicking of one switch under a shelf. With the room laying in darkness, the bright lights outside felt even more pronounced, casting the bar in a colourful maze of shadows. Saghiza led Jianyu to the door and then locked it behind himself with the swipe of a key card.

The elevator descended quietly and swiftly, depositing them in the wide entrance hall of the ground floor. The hologram with standard-issue brain-dead AI that served as a guide to the building, a shining blue image of a human woman dressed in a uniform that put Jianyu in mind of a flight attendant, wished them a good night.

“Good night to you, too,” Saghiza answered, nodding at her.

Jianyu had to laugh. “I don’t think her deep learning is so developed that she cares whether you pay her any attention.”

“You never know,” Saghiza answered. “AI does not often announce itself before it plans to go rogue. Besides, it does not hurt to be polite to the only other person who is here as late as I am.”

“You must be working ten, twelve hour shifts, huh?”

He let Saghiza lead the way down the broad sidewalk once they were outside. Despite the late hour, luxury cars still zipped over their heads in the airborne streets of Ideal Next. Like so many cities, it never truly went to sleep, for as the late workers returned home, the early shift struggled out of bed, all watched by those who worked through the night. Even in an expensive luxury and business district such as this one, that still held true.

“Most days. It’s fine, though. As I said, I do enjoy my job and I _do_ sometimes get time off. You just haven’t been in during these evenings, I assume.” He glanced at Jianyu. “I also don’t usually get shot at without warning, which is a perk.”

“‘Usually’?”

“It’s a safer district, but robberies still happen,” Saghiza said nonchalantly. “Our hologram concierge is not stopping them from entering the building.”

“Makes sense,” Jianyu admitted. Ideal Next wasn’t at the top of the list of interstellar slums, but every big city had its dangers.

“What about you? You said you haven’t been in the city long. You work for a private security firm? Ramirez Protection, maybe? Lighthouse?”

“You know the scene. I guess you get a lot of my colleagues up there.” As Saghiza nodded, Jianyu weighted how much to tell him. “I don’t do large-scale security work – no deployed armies or anything –, just the small gigs. Don’t really feel like something elaborate right now.”

It was really the perfect job for someone like him, not that he’d had too many options. Still, it was all individual contracts, so he could sign up and leave whenever he wanted, his rep sheet was part of his CV rather than a hindrance, and most importantly it was all half a galaxy away from everything he’d known before.

“I see. That seems safer – at least to some degree.”

Jianyu smiled. “Most days, yeah. You’ve been here a while, then?”

Perhaps it was the lack of a bar separating them, but this time, Saghiza did not avoid his question.

“Eleven years this summer,” he said. “I did not think that I would stay this long, but I have come to enjoy this place. There are worse out there, and it has a lot of interesting inhabitants and history.”

“Short history, though, right? Only one hundred fifty years or so.”

“As Ideal Next, yes. There was a city here before it.”

Jianyu looked around him, as if he could find some evidence of that right here in this perfectly paved streets.

“Really? I figured the company just put it in the prettiest spot of the jungle back in the day.”

“Most people do, but Ideal Next was not humanity’s first attempt at settling down on Zeta-Eight. There was a mining colony here before and the town that had grown around it. Ideal Next did manage to raze almost everything that was here before to the ground,” Saghiza said with some distaste in his voice. “The ruins were abandoned before Ideal Next came, though, so at least they did not chase anyone out. They left a few of the old structures standing at the edge of the city, I assume because they weren’t in the way. You might not have seen them. They’re almost in the jungle. If you live in the western outskirts, like I do, it becomes more obvious.” He shook his head. “They’re not pretty ruins, these old buildings, but they do tell stories. Add the wars to it and it’s not a nice history Ideal Next has... but when you get to a certain age, the history of most people and places is not wholly nice.”

“Never realised all that,” Jianyu murmured.

Then again, he hadn’t been asking. He hadn’t thought much about what kind of place Ideal Next was at all, except far away, and he still didn’t think he’d stay here a full standard year.

“It’s not something Ideal Next advertises. They don’t want you to think about the bones of the old mines. It does clash with this...”

With his long-fingered hand, Saghiza gestured towards the entirety of the partially floating skyline around them, the glittering steel buildings and expensive cars.

“Isn’t that always the case?” Jianyu said with a grin. “I grew up in Prosperity on Mars and-”

He stopped himself as a sudden shock of adrenaline flooded through him. He hadn’t breathed a word of where he came from in all the time he’d been here, had sworn to himself he wouldn’t. Saghiza had just gotten it out of him without even trying. You’d think lacking the trappings of the bar, he’d at least be without that bartender magic which loosened tongues so easily, Jianyu thought with a sullen frown. Then again, no other bartender but Saghiza had gotten him to talk here.

“Yes?” Saghiza prompted.

It’d be more obvious now not to continue.

“It also had an image and a different reality,” he said, trying to sound relaxed. “I mean, I guess most cities do. Prosperity was the original one, though, right? First time our species got off Terra and Luna back in the day, the great big proof humanity would make it in space. It’s pretty much a shithole now, but the postcards still look awesome. Lots of old, well-kept 22nd century buildings with red rock in the background. I don’t think I’d even seen the Big Needle up close until I was a teenager, though. They didn’t really let kids as poor as me into the inner districts. They had fences and everything.”

“What a cruel place. Did your parents fall on some good luck when you were older, then?”

“No. They weren’t much in the picture, anyway. I made a friend who knew how to shut down the electricity and we vaulted over the fence,” Jianyu said, recovering his grin.

Saghiza laughed. “Good,” he said gravely.

He slowed his steps in front of a tall, dark building. Jianyu glanced up at the logo: _All Trader_ , one of the bigger human banks with a start in the Sol system, who now had offices all over the Milky Way.

“I will be right back,” Saghiza said.

Jianyu nodded his head, looked up again. Who did the Gold Bar belong to, anyway? Sometimes, it felt like it was Saghiza himself, considering he was always there, front and centre, and all the staff reported to him, but Jianyu had heard him speak of a boss.

The doors slid open noiselessly, admitting Saghiza back into the street.

“That is done. I’m heading to the subway. What about you?”

“Same, though probably a different direction. I live up north.”

Saghiza nodded his head.

“Do you have any plans for tomorrow night?” he asked, after a moment of comfortable silence had stretched between them.

With a tumble of his heart, Jianyu stared at him. The tone of the question had been too conversational for an invitation to a date and Jianyu really didn’t see anything on Saghiza’s face that indicated that he was embarrassed or anxious.

“Why? What’s happening tomorrow night?”

That dark purring noise that indicated a chuckle came from Saghiza again. “You really are brand new to the city. Tomorrow is the Founding Festival. It’s celebrated with city-wide fireworks. They start at ten in the evening and are quite impressive to see.”

“Oh.” Despite himself, Jianyu felt just a little disappointed. “Didn’t realise that. I’ve been on my feet all week, haven’t even had time to listen to the radio or anything.”

“You will find fireworks everywhere, so you don’t have to worry you will miss out without a good spot.”

“Where are the good spots?”

“That depends on your taste. My friends like to watch downtown, where the corporate fireworks are closest. It is an impressive display. I work most Founding Festivals, so I see them through the window. You can still see these anywhere across the city, though. When I can, I watch from the western districts where I live. Fireworks are more fun to me when they are less... coordinated.”

“Sounds about right. Pony shows can get boring. Although I’m not going to find any good secret spots in a day.”

“Why don’t you come to the festival with me? I’m off work.”

Jianyu opened his mouth and closed it. Despite the fact that he liked spending time with Saghiza, something about the proposition made him nervous. If he started getting to know the city, its secrets, its history, its habits, and especially people as charming as Saghiza, it would not be so easy to leave. Jianyu had promised himself never to get so attached again that leaving would hurt as much as it had when he was packing his bags on Prosperity. Even Saghiza was much safer as long as he was standing behind the bar, though Jianyu had sometimes bemoaned that fact in his head at the same time.

Then there was the part of him that wanted to run his hand through Saghiza’s hair and mess it up a bit, find out what his scales felt like against his hands, and hear him talk for days about this human city he moved through with such ease, and about himself if he ever felt like it.

_It’s just fireworks with some guy and there might be a dozen of his buddies with us, anyhow. It’s not like I’m buying a house here or proposing marriage. What’s the worst that could happen? Won’t do any harm to take my mind off the job, anyhow._

“If you don’t mind me sticking around.”

“Not at all, Mr. Liu.”

The words were as smooth and friendly as usual, making it impossible for Jianyu to pinpoint why Saghiza had invited him. Was he trying to integrate a floundering newbie, or looking to get closer?

Not that Jianyu knew what he wanted, either, though he for sure wouldn’t have turned down a more intimate celebration.

“It’s Jianyu,” he said, because that much at least felt right. “Here, I’ll give you my number. Send me the coordinates tomorrow.”

“As you wish, Jianyu.”

He raised the wrist with his persocomm and held it towards Saghiza’s. A brief beep informed them that contact information had been exchanged.

They parted at the bottom of the stairs to the subway, since their trains took them in different directions. As he glanced over his shoulder, Jianyu found himself briefly meeting Saghiza’s dark eyes again before Saghiza was swallowed by a crowd.

-

The next evening, Jianyu climbed out of the subway station at Zhang Factories, the last station on the westwards line, and followed the dot on the holographic map his persocomm provided for him on a projected screen. Whereas the part of the city where he lived was mostly cramped living spaces over shops and dive bars, Zhang Factories, true to its name, was a lot of wide industrial ground interspersed with apartment buildings here and there. The broad lots filled with crates and raw materials and the flat warehouses allowed him to look out into the jungle, where high trees with tire-sized leaves and broad flowers were lit up by the white neon floodlights around the factory grounds.

If Saghiza hadn’t told him about tonight’s fireworks, Jianyu probably would have figured it out during the day, considering colourful lights had been exploding in the sky since early noon and the children running the streets around his apartment and here were chasing each other with cheap sparklers and squibs.

The dot did not lead him to anyone’s house. Saghiza had sent him the coordinates to an abandoned building instead, which Jianyu saw rising out of the drab grey blocks of factories from half a mile away.

Knowing nothing about whatever city had been here before Ideal Next, he could immediately tell that this was one of the older buildings. It _looked_ heavier, all stone bricks, round in the edges, the thick vines that had taken over climbing through empty oval windows and doors. With half the city’s skyscrapers floating and the rest looking like they wanted to, this dark building was fully solid and yet still seemed to reach up to the stars.

He would have marvelled at it for longer if he had not caught sight of Saghiza standing in the fluorescent light of a street lamp. For a moment, Jianyu didn’t even recognise him. He still kept his hair in a braid, but it was looser and laid over his shoulder. Instead of human clothes, he wore robes layered in multiple shades that ranged from light pink to dark red, complimenting the colour of his scales. The fabric was of a silk-like texture that caught the light just like his scales did. His robes were belted at the hip, falling down in a skirt that reached his feet, and flared out somewhat before cascading into long sleeves, making his shoulders look broader. These clothes looked no less formal than his uniform did, but they were clearly not of human make. There was even fabric wrapped artfully around the tail and the way it waved in the air when Saghiza moved reminded Jianyu of the long fin of an ornamental fish.

It took him a while to realise that Saghiza had spotted him, too. Knowing that he must have stared at him for a full five seconds or so like an absolute idiot, Jianyu quickly pulled himself together and crossed the distance with long strides.

“You know, somehow I had never even imagined you in anything but your work clothes.”

“Can you manage the shock?” Saghiza asked with dry amusement.

“Not hard to do when it looks this good,” Jianyu said, not even thinking before the compliment escaped him. It wasn’t a lie, either. “I feel underdressed now. Should I feel underdressed?”

He couldn’t actually tell if this was formal clothing or just what the Zarussan people, or whatever group of them Saghiza belonged to, considered street wear. It looked fancy, anyway.

“No, I just felt like putting on something more elaborate. I’m barely used to seeing myself in anything but sleeping or work clothes, either,” Saghiza answered. “Besides, I enjoy the clothes you chose.”

Jianyu couldn’t help but preen a little when he saw Saghiza looking him up and down, his gaze touching on each part of him with deliberation. He had thrown on dark jeans and a leather jacket over an old shirt he’d found at the bottom of the bag with which he’d arrived and which he still used as his wardrobe. He’d paired this get-up with scuffed brown combat boots. It was the way he liked to dress in his free time, but like Saghiza, he hadn’t had a lot of it lately, and before that he’d been in his prison jumpsuit, so fashion hadn’t been a concern in a while.

“Come on,” Saghiza said.

“Where are we going? This place looks run-down.”

He could maybe see a rave going down here, but it was too quiet for that and Saghiza didn’t seem like the type, anyway.

“To the roof. Don’t worry, I have been there before. The structure is still sound.”

He led them to the back of the building where a set of heavy iron stairs wound in a tight spiral from the bottom to the top. Saghiza took the lead and since his much taller body was supported without creaking, Jianyu followed him, briefly fascinated with the way Saghiza’s tail wrapped casually around the railing at every step for support. When he’d first seen him, he’d found the prehensile tail somewhat unsettling, as it moved so much like a fingerless hand, but these days he mostly just wondered what it would feel like to have it curl around various parts of him. Those idle thoughts were crashing to the front now, spurred by the fact that Saghiza had greeted him dressed up to the nines at a secret hiding spot to watch the fireworks, and without any of the other guests Jianyu had figured might join them. Maybe Jianyu was just misreading alien customs, but then again, Saghiza had spent a lot of time around humans and was quite adept at adopting theirs.

When they had reached the top of the building, Jianyu realised that its considerable height among the factories and living accommodations actually gave them a top-down view of the district. It looked like a giant map, with cars and people filling the streets like toys. In the distance, the high-rises and floating shapes of downtown Ideal Next rose against a night sky that never grew darker than a blue grey with all the lights illuminating it.

“Not bad,” Jianyu told Saghiza with a nod of acknowledgement.

“A different sort of view on the city, but no less beautiful.”

“How’d you even find this place? Do you just randomly climb around on ruins?”

“Sometimes. I’ve always liked exploring. This was actually one of the first spots I discovered that I ended up returning to. I liked it because I could see so much of the place I lived in.”

Sounded like Saghiza had come to Ideal Next with a way different mission than Jianyu. He hadn’t even looked at a map of the subway stations before he’d been forced to do so to get around.

Saghiza wore a bag slung over one shoulder, which he opened to reveal a thin blanket. This he spread out at the edge of the building, where a knee-high wall of red bricks at least gave the illusion of protection from tipping over. Next, he produced two bottles of beer and a plastic box with a lid. He opened it to reveal it was filled to the brim with balls of crispy baked dough.

“Drinks and snacks? You’ve thought of everything,” Jianyu said.

“I don’t often have the time to entertain outside of the bar.” Saghiza gestured at the blanket with his tail while he opened the beer with a small bottle opener. He handed one bottle to Jianyu and clicked his against it in a sort of pre-emptive toast. “Let’s sit down. It’s almost ten.”

Jianyu fell down on his backside, taking a swig of the cool beer as he did so. For as much as he’d gone back and forth in his head, contemplating if he should cancel their meeting and prevent himself from getting wrapped up in something that would make his life more complicated, he was damn glad now he hadn’t. He felt almost like a human being here, having a drink with someone he actually liked talking to, someone who apparently didn’t mind spending time with him, considering how meticulously he’d prepared the evening. _Shit, how long has it been since someone wanted to be around me like that? It wasn’t in jail, and my friends in the Reds obviously didn’t give that much of a fuck._

Saghiza sat by his side cross-legged, stretching his back and rolling his neck. A brief pained look of discomfort crossed his face.

“Back getting to you?” Jianyu asked, pulling himself from his thoughts.

“Sometimes.” Saghiza paused before he went on. “Zarussans actually alternate between walking on our legs and using our hands to support ourselves in addition, so always being on two feet can be taxing. Humans tend to find it disconcerting when I spontaneously fall over on all fours, though, especially our distinguished clientele. Besides, you get dirt on your trousers.” He ran a hand through the layered folds of his robes. “It’s less noticeable with these clothes.”

“Well, don’t do it on my accord. Get comfortable.”

Saghiza regarded him for a moment, then inclined his head. He leaned forward, unfolded his legs and sat on his knees instead – on his haunches, really, Jianyu thought, because there was something cat-like in the way he crouched, alert, his hands on the ground before him, back concave and his tail ticking out in the air. It probably shouldn’t have been as attractive to him as it was, but while Saghiza always had great posture, Jianyu could not but notice the easy grace that had overtaken him when he had allowed himself to relax.

“Here, try them.”

With the tip of his tail, Saghiza pushed the plastic box towards Jianyu. As he reached for a pastry, his hand brushed against the receding tail. The scales were cooler to the touch than human skin, but not unpleasant in the sweltering heat of the evening. He quickly popped the pastry ball in his mouth to refrain from commenting on that fact.

It seemed that Saghiza had put in extra care to create something suitable for a human this time because these soft balls of pastry were definitely sweet, though not to a cloying degree. Jianyu grabbed another without thinking and found Saghiza’s eyes narrowed at him, quite obviously pleased.

“They’re good,” Jianyu muttered through a mouth full of pastry.

“They would be better with ennis herb, but it’s impossible to get a hold of in this part of the galaxy.”

“Even better? Hard to imagine.”

Saghiza breathed out softly and shook his head, yet he did not reject the compliment.

“Where did you learn to cook like this, anyway?” Jianyu asked when he’d swallowed. He could see him learn to mix drinks on the job, but he wasn’t actually a cook.

“Just a skill I picked up over the years. I find few people dislike having someone around who can make a proper meal. I have long worked alongside humans, so I picked up recipes of your many differing cuisines. The drinks were just meant to compliment the cooking at first, but that became my profession.” He snorted softly. “Besides, I often found myself in situations where the alcohol was so bad it had to be made palatable.”

Since he’d been on Ideal Next for a long while, that made sense. You probably had to train in the holes in the outer districts for a while before they let you try your hand at the Gold Bar. Jianyu wondered what it would have been like to have met Saghiza at some dive bar instead. Probably better he hadn’t, since with cheaper prices and closer proximity to his home, Jianyu would have been even more tempted to hang out there all the time.

Not that he was doing much to keep a distance now, Jianyu admitted to himself, considering this rooftop picnic.

“It’s starting.”

Jianyu had been looking at Saghiza, but tore his gaze away and found it greeted by a flash of colour. In the distance, over downtown, fireworks rose into the sky in a hundred shades, painting flowers, brand names, stars, company mascots. They shivered in the air for a moment and died down to be replaced by the next volley of carefully constructed masterworks.

At the same time, at their feet, the streets of the Zhang Factories district lit up, too. Here, the fireworks were not so elaborate and less coordinated, exuberant bursts of colour that sprang from small paper volcanoes on the streets and shot up in rockets that exploded in the air. 

Even Jianyu, who wasn’t one to get all wrapped up in shows like this, found himself breathless for a moment. Ideal Next was a big city and every one of its inhabitants seemed intent on painting the sky. For a while, he just sat there in silence sipping his beer, watching shapes and colours appear and then rain down in showers of sparkles, blink and vanish, glow like suns that collapsed in glorious supernovas. The air began to smell of gunpowder, sulphur, and for once that wasn’t something Jianyu needed to be on edge about.

He opened his mouth to exclaim to Saghiza about a particularly impressive fountain of golden light that had emerged from the rooftop of a factory down the street, but found himself silenced by the image of him. Saghiza’s dark eyes were wide, turned to the heavens, and he had shifted his weight over his hands, as if he wanted to somehow jump and join into the colourful chaos that arose in the air around them. Yet, the perpetually shifting light also illuminated a few lines between his eyes, the skin over his flat nose wrinkled in contemplation.

Jianyu had to laugh. His trance broken, Saghiza turned to him.

“What is it?”

“You look all melancholic.”

“Do I?” Saghiza huffed. “It’s possible. The Founding Festival is an occasion for corporate self-congratulation above anything, but if Ideal Next had never been raised out of the ground, I could not have built this life I enjoy here. It’s not a perfect place by any means, but – it _is_ my home.”

“Helps to have a spot like that,” Jianyu admitted. “If you can stay.”

He hadn’t loved Prosperity, but sometimes he laid awake at night, staring at the naked concrete ceiling, and missed air streets stuffed so full of cars they darkened the sky like clouds, the smell of the Vietnamese place that had always drifted in even through the closed window of his apartment, the throngs of factory workers that came like the tide at the change of each shift providing a crowd he had often gotten lost in on purpose. Fuck, sometimes he even missed the bastards who had made him their fall guy. He’d known some of them since he’d been a snot-nosed brat.

“As long as you are alive, there is always a possibility to make a new home,” Saghiza noted.

“And how often do you have to get driven out before you realise it might be a good idea to give up on it?”

He’d shot back without thinking, but Saghiza considered his words for a moment.

“That depends on the person,” he said. “I would say the more someone needs to feel like they have a permanent home, the more difficult it becomes to build a new one when their original one is lost. For someone who is transient by nature, it would not be so bad to have to leave and start anew.”

“Huh,” Jianyu made. He’d never thought of it like that, probably because it was a dire thought. Was he doomed to always be missing a piece?

“I apologise, I didn’t mean to bother you with that comment,” Saghiza said gently.

“No, it’s fine. I started it.”

Jianyu reached into the box and pulled out another ball of pastry.

“Anyway, before I get us talking about all the sad shit in the world like you’re still on the job and have to listen to some asshole’s drunken ramblings... aren’t you going to have any of these? Or are they too sweet for you?”

Saghiza watched him closely for another moment, but then allowed the shift to this easier topic. 

“I made them for you, but I can eat them, too. I have gotten used to human foods over the years.”

Since he was already holding it, Jianyu handed the pastry to Saghiza. When Saghiza opened his mouth, Jianyu was surprised to see him roll out his tongue – much longer than Jianyu had previously figured – and wrap it around the ball, pulling it in. The immediate thought that long, flexible tongue put in his head left him staring for a moment.

“What?” Saghiza asked calmly.

Jianyu groped quickly for an explanation.

“Uh – for how much we talk about food, I’ve never seen you eat, either,” he muttered.

“At work, I would make sure to eat more like a human,” Saghiza answered, amused.

Jianyu had a feeling that his rather tepid observation hadn’t done very much to hide what he’d actually been thinking about. Saghiza didn’t seem bothered, to be fair.

“Don’t want to get comments from horny customers?” Jianyu said, grinning sheepishly.

“They could be bothersome, though I suppose I am willing to make an exception in special cases.”

Jianyu swallowed. All cultural differences aside, this comment was direct. If he still wanted to get out of here with some sort of distance intact, now was probably the time.

_But why not? I doubt he’s looking for more than a fling from someone like me. Besides, could be fun to be picked up by the bartender for once instead of just being another idiot hitting on him._

Perhaps sex was a good idea, anyway. If he got this out of his system, he might be able to let it go and even find a bar he could afford to get properly drunk at.

He grabbed another piece of pastry and held it to Saghiza, aiming this one at his face rather than his hand.

“One more?” he asked.

The hint was effortlessly taken by Saghiza, who opened his mouth and stretched out his tongue to take the sweets from Jianyu’s fingers. It brushed only briefly against Jianyu’s skin, but considering how skilfully Saghiza’s tongue gripped the pastry, Jianyu had an inkling that the contact hadn’t been accidental.

As he turned his gaze back on the fireworks, he scooted closer on the blanket, pushing the box with the pastries out of the way so that he could sit thigh to thigh with Saghiza.

He expected a hand to land on his leg, but instead, Saghiza’s tail moved the air behind him and then wrapped around Jianyu’s shoulders. Jianyu almost jumped for surprise, glancing down at its red tip curling gently against his own chest.

“You know, you make us humans look pretty boring and clumsy. Got that tongue and tail moving like extra limbs, you even have more fingers... someone could feel inadequate.”

“I’m sure you have all the requisite skills to make up for that lack,” Saghiza said, cocking his head at him. “Why don’t you show me?”

That was his cue to stop being coy, then. Jianyu raised his hand and ran his thumb over Saghiza’s bottom lip.

“How do Zarussans feel about kissing?”

“Generally, they have no opinion, since they don’t do it. I find it’s a custom I enjoy, though,” Saghiza said, mouth moving against Jianyu’s fingers.

Considering how long Saghiza had lived in Ideal Next, it made sense that Jianyu wouldn’t be his first human. The interest in his wide, dark eyes had to be for another reason than idle curiosity about slots fitting together, then.

Saghiza did not leave Jianyu any time to think too deeply about it. His hands joined his tail in pulling Jianyu closer. When he suddenly leaned in to kiss him, Jianyu’s finger was still between them, as surprise had left him sluggish. Saghiza tapped his tongue against the finger before snaking it around and between Jianyu’s lips. Unexpected as that was, Jianyu was almost tempted to leave his finger there to see what else Saghiza’s tongue might do with it, but the temptation to kiss him properly became overwhelming.

He pushed him over onto the blanket, hands up in the layers of Saghiza’s robes. Pretty as they were, he wanted to tear them off, see what he looked like underneath, but even up here on the rooftop it was probably a better idea not to get fully undressed when other people might be looking for a good spot to enjoy the fireworks, too. Luckily, there were still ways to temper the disappointment, since he could push the robes almost to Saghiza’s hips and grab the muscular, naked legs underneath, his fingers sliding easily over smooth scales that grew thinner and softer at the inside of his thighs.

Saghiza’s hands ran through Jianyu’s hair, the pointed tips of his claws briefly scraping over his scalp just as his tail roughly pulled up Jianyu’s shirt and jacket. Jianyu felt the blood rush down between his legs so suddenly he feared he might get light-headed.

When Saghiza saw what he’d uncovered, he separated for a moment to regard Jianyu’s upper body more closely. He was covered in tattoos, some of them gang-related shit, which was happily lost in a sea of drawings of varying quality he had accumulated over the years.

“You have a lot of tattoos,” Saghiza noted.

“Yeah, I look a bit like a tablet screen after a boring meeting.”

Saghiza chuckled, curling his clawed fingers inward to drag his knuckles over Jianyu’s torso before he rested them on his belt, opening it and pulling down the zipper of his trousers. “I like it. Ink doesn’t hold well on our scales.” He leaned in to drag his long tongue over Jianyu’s chest, tracing the outline of a crow, moving down to kiss the old-fashioned male pin-up that stretched across Jianyu’s right side.

Fumbling through the layers of his robes, Jianyu got his hand between Saghiza’s legs. However, he found nothing obvious there aside from a bulge, as if Saghiza was wearing some sort of really tight underwear.

Apparently the confused pause in his movements did not go unnoticed, as he felt Saghiza’s breath against his skin when he laughed.

“It’s sheathed,” he said, eyes narrowed.

“I’ve got to convince it to come out to play? I see.”

Jianyu dragged his hand up and found what he was looking for, a fold in the bulge. He smoothed his fingers along its edge and that got him an excited twitch of Saghiza’s tail, so he carefully pushed his thumb inside. The shiver that went through Saghiza’s body told him he wasn’t wholly on the wrong path. With his palm he cradled the bulge, giving it a squeeze.

Saghiza leaned up to kiss him again as his cock was rising to meet Saghiza’s hand, his skin folding slightly to release it. It was smoother than a human cock, without a defined head, but considering the dark noises Saghiza made into his mouth, it worked about the same.

Distracted as he was by Saghiza’s tongue in his mouth and the cock in his hand and that tall body pressing against his own, Jianyu only noticed when Saghiza turned his head away and looked up past his head at the sky that a thin spray of rain had started dusting down on them. 

“Well, it is the season for it,” Saghiza said with a sigh, deep frown lines between his eyes as he caressed Jianyu’s arm. “It’s probably going to get worse. They should have laid the foundation blocks during the dry spells... then again, the fireworks would probably set the jungle on fire every year if they had.” He looked back at Jianyu. “Would you like to postpone this before we are drenched?”

“No.”

Maybe it was raining and the blanket didn’t really hide the fact that his knees and elbows where pressed against uncomfortably hard stone ground, but Jianyu had a feeling he wouldn’t manage to get his trousers closed at this point. Luckily, Saghiza gave his quiet, rumbling chuckle and dragged him into his arms.

“Alright,” he noted, as he hooked his leg around Jianyu’s hips, turning them on their sides.

Jianyu pushed his hand between them again. Over Saghiza’s shoulder, in the corner of his eyes, he saw the fireworks had not abated. A small shower wouldn’t stop anyone who managed to live in Ideal Next all year round, but the real show was how their colours caught on Saghiza’s wet scales, which repelled the rain, leaving it to reflect the light all around them as the drops pearled there.

 _Fuck, he’s handsome._ Not that that was news, but the thought burrowed much deeper in his brain while he was holding their cocks together and stroked them firmly, his own greed for Saghiza coinciding nicely with the need to speed it up before they were swept away by a storm.

Saghiza leaned in to suck at his throat, his tail loosening its grip on his torso to snake up Jianyu’s spine, emerging from the collar and dragging over Jianyu’s lips. Jianyu snapped playfully at it, his breath going hot and quick, and as Saghiza pushed it roughly inside Jianyu’s mouth, Jianyu came over his own hand.

Saghiza pulled back his tail, trailed the wet tip of it over Jianyu’s neck before he withdrew it from the folds of his shirt and jacket. That slight crease on his brow paired with the narrowed eyes made him look undeniably smug.

Rain fell in thick, warm drops now, running down Jianyu’s half-naked back where the shirt and jacket were bunched up. With his slick hand, he squeezed Saghiza, rolled on top of him as he did, a fumble of entangled limbs. Saghiza’s body became a straight line as he came, his breath stopping for a moment, his head thrown back.

Jianyu kissed him again, held himself there for a moment on his arms, listening to the whistle of fireworks mixing with the sound of the rain. Next to him, Saghiza reached out with his tail and dragged the edge of the blanket between Jianyu and himself, cleaning them up. As Jianyu stretched out, his hand met the box with pastries. He quickly placed the lid on top of it.

“One of the most enjoyable ways I have spent this festival in the last decade,” Saghiza said, hauling himself up when Jianyu had climbed off of him. “Though I know humans are not resistant to being waterlogged. We should move now.”

Jianyu grinned, zipping up his trousers before pulling his shirt and jacket back into place.

“My constitution isn’t that weak, but sure, let’s head out. I do have to work in four hours or so. I should catch a little shut-eye.”

Saghiza cocked his head, tail swishing behind him. “Really? I wouldn’t have brought you out so late if I had known.”

“I’ll take a shitty morning in exchange for this. Besides, I guess not being asleep for my first Founding Festival isn’t too bad.”

He probably wouldn’t be here for the next one, after all.

Saghiza nodded his head, wrapping up the blanket and stuffing it in his bag, gathering the bottles as well. He held the box of pastries to Jianyu, though.

“Breakfast,” he told him.

Jianyu knew it would have been polite to reject it, but Saghiza seemed to like it when he ate and drank what he made and the thought that he’d have his home-cooked pastry tomorrow instead of the convenience store food that tasted vaguely like plastic and sanitizer was too tempting. He grabbed the box.

“Thanks.”

Together, they descended the rusty stairs again. At the bottom, Saghiza nodded towards the buildings down the street that were outlined in black against the jungle. “My place is over there. You have to go the other way?”

“Yeah, to the subway.”

“Then I hope you have a good night, even if it will be short.”

Jianyu nodded his head and, before his brain had caught up to his body, got on his toes to press a kiss on Saghiza’s lips. If he’d surprised Saghiza as much as himself, his face didn’t betray it anymore by the time Jianyu leaned back.

“Well, uh, good night to you, too,” Jianyu stammered, wiping rain out of his eyes.

-

Just two days later, Jianyu ended up meeting Saghiza in the Gold Bar again, trailing behind the rich heir to a space freighter empire and an upcoming politician. The way he immediately searched Saghiza behind the bar before he could stop himself, and his pulse jumping as Saghiza raised his eyes and narrowed them briefly at him told him why he probably shouldn’t have agreed to come here.

Standing by the table like a statue gave him time to think, at least, whether he wanted to or not, and since he had avoided doing so for the last couple of days, he knew which one it was. Still, as he’d told himself before – this wasn’t marriage and Saghiza was a grown man who didn’t desperately need Jianyu in his life. Should Jianyu leave in a couple of months, he might be disappointed, but not heartbroken. He seemed like a realistic guy; if Jianyu set expectations properly, it might not be the worst thing to have someone to be around, providing Saghiza was still up for it. He’d manage to keep his own emotions in check somehow. He wasn’t a lovesick teen anymore, after all.

It wasn’t how he’d planned this, but the truth was, he’d enjoyed his evening with Saghiza more than pretty much any other on Ideal Next and if you didn’t enjoy yourself, why even keep on going? For the first months, just not being behind bars anymore had been enough, but that wasn’t all there was to life.

The conversation between his employer and their guest drew on and on. Usually, Saghiza would have been annoyed to be kept this long, but since he was released downstairs, it gave him an excuse to hang around and wait for Saghiza to come out carrying his briefcase.

“Off work?” Saghiza asked.

“Yeah, they just left.” ‘Just’ being fifteen minutes ago, but who was counting? Jianyu nodded at Saghiza’s briefcase. “How about a bodyguard?”

“I wouldn’t say no.”

It didn’t remain the only night that week he walked to the bank and then the subway station with Saghiza. Chatting over the bar was fun, but Saghiza was naturally more talkative when he didn’t have to consider new orders every other sentences. Besides, it was probably a good idea not to have a bartender run around the city alone with money in a bag at night, even if he was armed. Jianyu had long learned you couldn’t save everybody, but he was invested in Saghiza not ending up in a gutter.

Conversation was easy as usual. Saghiza had a lot of stories about the city and its inhabitants that made the place sound a lot more interesting than Jianyu had allowed himself to notice it was, and Jianyu’s job gave him fodder for anecdotes where his non-existent private life really didn’t. Sometimes, they were both tired after a long day and didn’t talk at all and that felt fine, too, just watching the city flow into the night while they walked side by side.

Considering Saghiza had put his neck out the last time, Jianyu was aware the ball to move this forward was now in his court. He didn’t just want to ask him home, though. Usually, he wouldn’t have minded being blunt, but he didn’t want Saghiza to think of him as a horndog with nothing else in mind. Since he hadn’t made an effort to get to know the city, though, he had no idea what people did for fun around here.

It was the empty box of pastries still standing in his sink that finally gave him an idea when he returned late one night to collapse onto the hard mattress the last tenant had left him, looking over into the kitchenette. 

Ennis was the name of the herb Saghiza had told him of. If Saghiza couldn’t get it in Ideal Next, Jianyu wouldn’t, either, but he still had a few contacts he could reach even from here. Of course, Jianyu had told himself he’d rather eat his tongue than talk to anyone from his past again, but to call someone like Brian Tem ‘someone from his past’ was saying too much. He was just a dealer who specialised in just about everything other people found hard to find, mostly over the counter, too.

Tem was still as useful as he’d always been; four days after his first message to him, Jianyu could pick his package up at a post office. After unearthing the bag of dry ennis, he stuffed it in the inner jacket pocket of the suit he wore and, after work, made for the Gold Bar, where he sat himself down in his corner and ordered ‘whatever drink you feel like making’.

While Saghiza took care of the last customers, Jianyu enjoyed the fruity mixture of whiskey and syrup he’d been served, alternating between looking at the screen of his persocomm and Saghiza, who was working with his usual speed and diligence.

“I hope you’re not bored yet,” Saghiza told him, when the remaining customers were working through their orders and the waitstaff stood somewhat listless around the room, for now done bringing him paper slips. “You were early tonight.”

“Don’t worry, I know this place by now. Would have come later if I hadn’t wanted to wait, but I was off work, anyway. Besides, they have the best drinks in the city here.” He winked and took a sip. “If you have a moment, though, I’d like to talk.”

“I need to wash a few glasses, anyway.”

The sink was right in front of Jianyu’s favourite spot, though considering there wasn’t likely to be a storm of customers descending on the bar at this hour for which they’d need glasses urgently, Saghiza could have put them in the dishwasher, too. Seemed like he was interested, then.

“Here,” Jianyu said, pulling the small bag of dry leaves out of his pocket. “I have a gift for you.”

Saghiza looked down at the bag in surprise before he picked it up with his tail and lifted it in front of his face. When he opened his eyes wide, Jianyu knew he’d recognised the herb.

“You said you were missing this ennis stuff.”

“I did, but this must have been much too expensive-”

“Wasn’t that bad.” Not as much as he’d been willing to pay. It had cost as much as a meal at a good restaurant and Saghiza had fed him enough of those for the price of appetisers. “You just need to know the right people. Anyway, I figured maybe we could cook together at some point – meaning you tell me what to do and maybe I’m not completely useless.”

“A very good idea,” Saghiza said, lively as he sat the bag down on the bar again. “I have the evening off in two days. Perhaps we could meet up?” He narrowed his eyes. “I could try out your neglected oven.”

Jianyu laughed. “Perfect. I can move my shift around, I’m pretty sure.”

-

“Exactly at eight, huh?”

“That’s what we agreed on, wasn’t it?”

Jianyu grinned and stepped to the side to let Saghiza into his apartment. He saw him discreetly scan his surroundings as he pulled off his shoes. There wasn’t much to see. The bed had come with the place and was built into the wall. There was an empty shelf and his bag that doubled as a wardrobe. The kitchenette looked pristine because he basically never touched it. A table with two chairs had been there before Jianyu as well. The windows looked out on a broad, sloping roof of corrugated sheet iron and the stores and offices that crowded the street beyond, punctuated by gaudy, shimmering advertisements that painted the rain in many colours.

“You’ve been here for a few months, you said?” Saghiza asked.

“I’m not home much.”

“I see. It has a nice view. Besides, you have the kitchen we need – and a few other handy pieces of furniture.”

His glance went first to the table, but moved to the bed for a split second.

Somehow, Jianyu was relieved. He’d never cared about this apartment, but he wanted Saghiza not to think of him as a weirdo. However, it seemed that what he saw here didn’t surprise him all too much. _Maybe that’s worse?_

Saghiza put down his briefcase and opened it. Aside from the bag with the herb, there were several other ingredients and a few bottles inside.

“Ennis is useful for a lot of different food, but I figured I would make you proper radehi first,” he said. “You seemed to enjoy them last time. I also want to try a new rum cocktail.”

“Sounds perfect.”

“Do you have a pan?” Saghiza asked.

“I think the person who lived here before me did. I checked before you came.”

Saghiza chuckled, leaning down to get the ingredients out of the bag while Jianyu opened the cupboard.

As he still scanned for the pan between scattered cooking utensils, the window exploded in a shower of glass that rained down on Saghiza. Three men jumped through. One of them took Saghiza by the throat and pulled him up, holding a gun to his head. Jianyu had grabbed the pistol he always wore at his belt, but he hadn’t pulled fast enough.

Another climbed through the window, making four people in his room, all decked out in combat gear. With helmets on, they were strangers, though at least Jianyu could guess there were probably humans under their black clothes. He stared at Saghiza, who stood perfectly still in his captor’s grip, eyes wide with shock. _God fucking damnit._

“Look who we have here.”

Jianyu snarled, had to keep his finger from twitching on the trigger. _Mic Carther._ That cleared some things up.

“Of course. What the hell are you doing here? I don’t have a warrant out, I did my time. This isn’t even your hunting ground.”

He might have worried that Saghiza was hearing all the shit about his past he’d done his best to hide, but right now, he did not care if Saghiza never talked to him again after this. He just wanted to get him out safe.

“Come on,” Carther made a show out of cocking his gun, pointing it at Jianyu, “we both know you didn’t sit for what you should have.”

“And we both know you’re just bitter you’re not the one who got to put my ass in jail.” Jianyu frowned. “Did Tem talk?”

“Nah, I just know who you deal with, kept a few feelers out.”

 _Fuck. Going to Tem was an amateur move._ Then again, he hadn’t had a reason to expect Carther to still be on his tail. There wasn’t a good reason. When had Carther ever needed those, though? His grudge had overtaken sense long ago.

“I assume this is not the first night you’re sitting in front of my window. Why now?” Jianyu pointed his chin at Saghiza. “He’s got nothing to do with whatever happened between us in the Sol system.”

“I arrived here a couple days ago, but I know what a slippery bastard you are, so I thought, I’ll check out the situation first. I knew if I got you alone, I’d probably have to shoot you before you sit still and you don’t deserve a death that quick. Luckily, you have provided me with some leverage.”

“Look, you’re still pissed about your brother, I get it. Tell him not to fire a semi-automatic at someone and next time he won’t get in trouble. That’s between the two of us, though. Or are you scared of a fair fight?”

“I don’t want an honourable battle,” Carther said and Jianyu could hear his smirk, “I want you to cry for mercy. So what will it be? Will you come back to my ship, or does your little bartender friend eat lead?”

He turned his gun around to point it at Saghiza.

Jianyu cursed out loud. He didn’t have a choice here. Saghiza had a gun to his head, another one trained on his face. All the tricks he might have pulled to get himself out of such a situation weren’t the kind he was willing to risk with Saghiza’s life on the line instead. He’d have to agree and then try to get away from Carther and his posse somehow.

Before he could open his mouth for an answer, Saghiza tore his head backwards, smashing it into his captor’s helmet, just getting it away from the mouth of the gun, then grabbed the man standing next to him with his tail and yanked him in front of him like a human shield. As the first shot fell, he’d already wound out of the human’s grip, and Jianyu was fairly certain he’d heard the crack of breaking bone as he did.

Carther shouted as Saghiza shot out of the sudden pile of bodies, bouncing off the wall and jumping at Carther’s back, taking him down to the floor.

Jianyu had been in enough fights to realise two things: one, this wasn’t Saghiza’s first rodeo, and two, he’d explicitly waited until Carther wasn’t pointing the gun at Jianyu anymore to move. There wasn’t time to gape and wonder, though. He had an experienced partner in this fight and now he had to make the best of it.

Jianyu spun and kneecapped one of the henchmen while ducking under a shot fired at him. He tackled the second one and over his head flew Saghiza’s tail, holding the baton Carther had worn at his belt, whacking one of the men so hard in the head that they fell over despite the helmet. That was when Carther threw him off, however, and, flailing wildly, smacked Jianyu in the face with the butt of his gun. A shot fell a second later, but Jianyu had closed the difference then and tackled him around the hip, throwing him into the wall. Carther’s helmet, which Saghiza must have loosened while wrestling with him on the ground, sat only precariously on his shoulders now. Jianyu rammed his knee against the hand with which Carther’s held his gun, tore off the helmet and looked him in his sharp blue eyes for one moment before he smashed his head into the wall.

Carther was still breathing as he got off him, not that Jianyu cared at this point. Behind him, Saghiza had appropriated the gun of the man Jianyu had shot at and sat on the thighs of another, expertly tying his hands with his belt. The third mook Carther had brought still laid unconscious on the floor.

Breathless, Jianyu got up and grabbed Carther’s gun to get it out of his reach should he wake up.

“Are you alright?” he asked Saghiza.

“Yes. A few bruises.” Saghiza stood. “You’re bleeding.”

“Busted nose, nothing worse.” He glanced at the unconscious Carther. “The dude has finally lost his mind, doing mercenary work outside his hunting grounds.” Mercenaries – the legit ones, anyway – were basically the only police in a lot of parts of the galaxy and the freedoms they had were manifold, but they didn’t like it when they showed up in each other’s jurisdictions, since that meant taking money out of the pockets of local mercenaries. They came down fairly hard on that sort of thing, though pretty much nothing else. Jianyu spat. “Asshole.”

“He’s not authorised to take jobs here? That should make things much easier, especially since you said you don’t have an open warrant.” Saghiza shook his head. “We need tie up these people before their boosters kick in. I assume you probably know how to secure them.”

“What tipped you off?” Jianyu asked quietly, then immediately felt like an ass for it. He was the one who had gotten Saghiza into this situation. “Sorry, I – yeah, I have rope around here, too.”

The sound of a long, wailing siren came from downstairs, interrupting them.

“I guess it won’t be necessary,” Saghiza corrected himself. “Let me handle the talking. I don’t run into them too often, but I have more experience with the city’s private security forces.”

Jianyu was happy to nod his head to that. He’d never been good with cops.

Saghiza was, though. Straight back, calm voice, all the facts in line. In under five minutes, they were talking to him like he was one of their own. _Who the hell is this guy? Being a bartender can’t be that dangerous._ Jianyu kept his mouth tightly shut, though. No reason to make the cops suspicious and besides, he’d no right to question Saghiza after the trouble Jianyu’s secrets had gotten them into. 

“Do you have somewhere to stay tonight, sir?” a policewoman asked him, interrupting his thoughts.

Jianyu opened his mouth and closed it. Right, his apartment was an active crime scene.

“He can stay with me if he doesn’t mind. We just need some of his clothes.”

Jianyu stared at Saghiza. “Are you sure?” he burst out.

“I doubt there will be even more people after you tonight. Do you think so?”

“No. I was never that important. It’s just Carther.”

“Can I take my bag?” Saghiza asked the cops.

“We’ll have to check it first.”

They did and found nothing, but one of them remarked on the rum: some local brand Jianyu didn’t know, but dark, aged eleven years in sugarwood barrels, a precious wood sourced from the other end of Zeta-Eight. That detail, the thought that Saghiza had brought the good stuff for a nice evening and had instead had his life threatened at gunpoint opened the door for all the well-deserved guilt to rush in so suddenly it choked off Jianyu’s air.

Saghiza and Jianyu were sent on their way. While they descended the stairs, Saghiza called a taxi. The driverless electronic car already hovered by the curb when they arrived on the ground floor. They climbed inside and it lifted noiselessly into the air after Saghiza had given the friendly AI voice the location.

“So – you mentioned his brother? What happened to him?” Saghiza asked, finally.

Jianyu wasn’t even going to try to wind himself out of this one. He knew he owed an explanation.

“Ben Carther. He broke his neck after I threw him down the stairs. He was a merc like this bastard, but he wasn’t on the job, then. His buddies just got in a fight with my friends about some bullshit in a club. Suddenly, he pulls this military-grade gun and starts firing.” Jianyu wiped at the drying blood on his nose. “He didn’t die. They fixed him up with a shiny new spine, too, but he wasn’t fit for hard merc work after that, so the two of them couldn’t do their family business routine anymore. Mic Carther had me on his radar ever since.”

“And you’ve been to jail?”

“Three years for robbery. Should have been there alongside some other people, but they elected to let me handle that problem.” He sighed. “Not like I didn’t deserve it, so whatever. I’m bitter that they threw me under the bus, not that I served time.”

“That makes sense. You were in a gang, after all,” Saghiza said matter-of-factly.

Jianyu stared at him. You’d think tonight, nothing would surprise him anymore.

“How the hell do you know that?”

Saghiza inclined his head. “The winged skull on your chest – Red Bloods, yes? I was never on Mars or met any one of your former colleagues, but they’re pretty numerous all around the Sol system, so they were always in the briefings. We seem to have moved in roughly similar areas.”

“You saw that and didn’t just get up and leave?”

Saghiza was silent for a moment. “I am not one who can cast stones on people who are trying to build a life away from a dishonourable past and you never seemed rotten to the core. Perhaps I let my feelings deceive me, though. What were your crimes? Is there a reason I should have fled?”

Saghiza’s admission made Jianyu’s stomach twist.

“I have killed, but only in self-defence. I was in a thousand brawls. I stole. We didn’t do prostitution or slavery or drugs, but we smuggled, mostly weapons, sometimes luxury goods. That’s how I still had contacts who could get me the ennis.”

“Carther said that’s how he found you.” Saghiza shook his head. “I wish I hadn’t mentioned it now. However, as I suspected, you are perhaps more innocent than me.”

They sat in silence for a moment.

“I realise you don’t owe me a thing after tonight,” Jianyu began, “so if you don’t want to talk, that’s fine. I’m just guessing they didn’t brief the bartenders on gangs, right?”

“No.” Saghiza was silent for such a long moment that Jianyu was certain he’d elected not to continue, before he suddenly raised his voice again. “I was in the Medvedev Corporation’s personal army for about twenty years.”

“Med Corp? That’s big.” They were among the top five Sol companies and ruled like a government over dozens of planets. “They’re legit, though, aren’t they? I don’t see how that compares to being a thug.”

“I think you have seen enough of most corporations to know that their enforcers are only on the right side of the law because money makes them so.”

“Right,” Jianyu admitted.

Saghiza glanced over at him. “I tried to do what my conscience told me, but I have fought in many senseless, bloody wars against the soldiers of other corporations and I did it on the order of bad people.”

“Okay, but – twenty years, that means you couldn’t have been older than, what, eleven, twelve, when they picked you up? That’s hardly an age where you’re responsible for anything.”

It wasn’t unusual for Med Corp to grab orphans off the street and train them up into loyal little soldiers during their teenage years, so their armies often looked pretty diverse when it came to species. It didn’t surprise Jianyu that even a Zarussan had somehow ended up among them.

“Ten years, yes, and that would be a fair defence if I had stayed ten years old for the twenty years that I served with them, but I grew up. In my mid-twenties, I withdrew from combat into army logistics. It’s how I learned to cook and mix drinks – the latter not on the record. However, I realised after a while that even if I wasn’t shooting, I didn’t want to stay.” He glanced out of the window. “That was how I ended up here.”

They were both quiet again. It was a lot to take in, but then again, he’d guessed that Saghiza had some sort of history, since he’d almost never spoken a word about the time before Ideal Next. It still didn’t seem half as bad as his own troubled past to him, but he was selfishly happy that Saghiza saw a parallel.

“Well, you said I know corporations armies, and I do. Many corp soldiers raised like you never get past the brainwashing. I’m happy you made it out of that meat grinder.” He looked over at him. “I know this is not enough, but I’m sorry for tonight. I should have kept an arm’s length between me and anyone else, period. I figured I’d be free of people from my past if I didn’t keep talking about them, but it was naive to think that bastard Carther had gotten over himself.”

“Yet I’m happy you did not push me away.”

Saghiza’s eyes were slightly narrowed, that look that would have been suspicion on a human’s face, but was friendly on his. Jianyu’s heart thumped in his chest.

“I guess I’m luckier than I deserve to be, picking up the one bartender who happens to have extensive combat training. You really saved my ass.” Jianyu rubbed the back of his neck. “But you didn’t need me trailing behind you to the bank, did you?”

Saghiza chuckled. “I still thought it was a good streak in you that you wanted to make sure I wasn’t shot down in the streets.”

His tail swayed between them and Jianyu took a heart and lifted his hand, let it brush against his fingertips. Saghiza did not pull back.

 _Fuck it._ No more hesitation, no more hemming and hawing about keeping his exit door open. How much worse than tonight could it get, after all? Saghiza was still here and wanted to be. Jianyu leaned in and kissed him.

-

Saghiza’s apartment had two rooms with sleek furniture, not completely new but kept decently clean. His kitchen was full with bottles and ingredients neatly grouped and on his shelves stood stacks of datapads and a forest of plants in pots. They looked like they had been taken out of the jungle to create a new one inside, with their broad leaves and radiant blossoms. Jianyu felt warmer just stepping into his home.

Saghiza sent him to the bathroom first, since Jianyu was covered in his own blood. He put his shirt and trousers over the iron bar on which Saghiza hung his dirty clothes, as instructed, and spent a while washing his face and checking to see if his nose was broken, as well as taking a look at the other parts that smarted. Fortunately, he was probably just going to end up with bruises rather than something he’d have to get fixed at the night clinic. If someone asked at work, he’d just claim he’d been in a fight on a behalf of his last employer.

Jianyu got rid of his underwear and socks, too. The shower cubicle was narrow, but the water ran strong and hot, unlike the lukewarm dribble Jianyu’s shower provided. He’d been standing under the steaming stream for so long that that the bathroom was fogged up when there was a knock at the door. 

“Yeah?” he called.

“I just wanted to check if you are alright. Do we need to find a doctor?”

“No, don’t worry.” Jianyu ran a hand through his hair. “Feel free to come in. Don’t you want to shower, too?”

He heard the door open. After a moment of rustling, the milky pane of glass opened up.

“Might be a bit tight in here,” Jianyu said hopefully.

“We will deal with it.”

It was the first time he’d seen Saghiza fully naked and when he stood this close, the height difference between them became even more obvious, as Jianyu could have easily tucked his head under Saghiza’s chin. However, considering the view below the neck, he didn’t mind that his gaze could innocently stray there. Saghiza’s body was all smooth red, scales lighter over the belly and sheath, with no nipples or belly button. There were marks, though, the kind he hadn’t seen in the twilight on a rainy roof while Saghiza had been clothed in so many layers: scars left by bullets and knives, the look of one who had seen battle. Saghiza gave him a moment to spectate before he wrapped his long limbs around Jianyu to fit himself into the shower, too. Jianyu still had leftover adrenaline pounding through him like a drug, making him want to get Saghiza as close as he could, so this was perfect.

However, Saghiza had just participated in an all-out brawl, too, and few people wanted to have hands on their ass while covered in dirt and blood. Jianyu reached for the soap, which was closer to his hands, then hesitated.

“Can I?” he asked.

“Certainly.”

Jianyu took his time as he applied the soap to Saghiza’s skin, inch by inch, then fiddled the tie out of his braid, allowing his wet hair to fall open all around him. Saghiza stood still, only his tail twitching. Jianyu grabbed that, too, worked his way up and ran his hands down over the back of Saghiza’s thighs, kneeled to wash his calves and clawed feet. He treated his chest, his arms, and only then let his hands wander over his cock, which had pushed out of its sheath sometime during Jianyu’s slow work. Even while he watched him do that, Saghiza was quiet and stood still.

“Maybe we should step outside,” he said, only after Jianyu’s hands had wandered between his legs. “I would like to join with you without water involved for once.”

Grinning, Jianyu let the cap of the soap snap shut. “Might get difficult here, anyway.”

The towel was soft and warm from where it had laid on the radiator. Jianyu winced as he touched his own cock, which was rock-hard, too. He wasn’t quite as disciplined as Saghiza.

Saghiza led the way out of the room, glancing over his shoulder to make sure Jianyu was following. However, Jinayu was briefly distracted from the magnificent sight before him by a sweet scent.

“What’s that smell?”

“It doesn’t take long to prepare radehi. I had a batch of dough in the freezer. The missing ingredient was the problem.”

Jianyu laughed, incredulous. “You’re really cooking for me? After everything?”

“Don’t make me sound so selfless. I’m also cooking for myself. It has been years since I had food with ennis,” Saghiza said, amused. “I won’t let some mercenary with a chip on his shoulder ruin that for me.”

Jianyu wrapped his arms around him from behind. The affection he’d felt for a while now had been a lot easier to hide when life hadn’t smashed every single piece of his armour yet.

Gently, Saghiza reached behind himself, trailed his hand down Jianyu’s side. He led him through an open door to a room where a thick futon laid on the ground. There were pillows on both ends of the bed and Jianyu knew he’d ask about that eventually, but now he just wanted Saghiza on them.

After pressing a kiss between Saghiza’s shoulder blades, he let go off him, but only to grab him by the arm and pull him down. Saghiza allowed him and then tipped him over after a kiss. Ducking his head, he dragged his long, long tongue over Jianyu’s cock before sitting over his knees.

“I want you inside me,” he told him, friendly but imperative.

“Please, be my guest,” Jianyu muttered, staring up in awe at his tall body towering over him as Saghiza moved to position himself over his hips.

To his surprise, he immediately grabbed his cock, pressing the head against his own hole.

“Don’t we need lube?”

“I’ll spare you the biological details, but no.” Saghiza placed his hand on Jianyu’s chest. It was curled to a first and Jianyu wondered why, but glancing at the hand next to him on the pillow and seeing its claws, he remembered. “Thanks to the placement of a gland, it won’t be a problem.”

“Perfect.”

Jianyu grabbed Saghiza by the hips, his fingers digging into the smooth scales as Saghiza lowered himself down on him.

He was not quite as hot inside as a human, Jianyu immediately realised, but the unfamiliar grip of that soft warmth was just as exciting. His hands wandered, cupped Saghiza’s ass, curiously touched the spot where his tail connected to his backside. Saghiza twitched at that, the measured movement with which he lowered himself down on Jianyu disturbed, eyes fluttering open in surprise. Jianyu had to grin.

“I’m not always going to stay a rookie when it comes to your kind,” he told Saghiza.

“I see you might turn out dangerous.”

Saghiza had seated himself fully on Jianyu now and held this position for a moment. Jianyu took a deep breath as well, mostly to prevent himself from coming inside him right away. Tonight hadn’t left him with a lot of patience.

He waited for Saghiza to move first, show that he was comfortable, but that was all the control he had left. His hips snapped up and Saghiza’s eyes widened, but he leaned into the movement. It seemed like Saghiza had not expected him to make a grab for the reins, but he held against it, setting a rough rhythm to match Jianyu that had Jianyu’s toes curling. He pressed up into him, fucking him, and with both hands pulled Saghiza’s face down towards him to kiss him. 

With Saghiza crouching over him like this, the angle was a little flatter, but with short, quick thrusts, Jianyu could still feel him as much as he wanted to. Saghiza allowed this for a moment, but grabbed Jianyu’s wrists with a smile when he tried to keep him down as Saghiza sat back again to take him in deeper. As before, there was no hard breathing, no moaning, but from the way his teeth clenched and his muscles moved under his scales, Jianyu could see that his was doing something for Saghiza.

If this evening had been dinner and TV, he would have gladly let Saghiza set the pace, but he still had fire in his blood now. He freed his hands and held on to Saghiza’s shoulders to haul himself up, groaning as he felt his cock shift inside him, and Saghiza scrambled at his arms in surprise, his claws pricking Jianyu briefly before Saghiza remembered himself and curled his hands back into fists.

Jianyu put his feet on the futon and one hand behind himself, gave himself some more leverage to thrust up into him. Saghiza met him once more, but Jianyu’s force and speed overwhelmed him this time, for his movements grew hastier. He rode him with abandon, mouth half-open, and Jianyu licked the scales at his neck, bit down to let him feel it through his thicker hide.

Saghiza’s cock rubbed against the muscle’s of Jianyu’s stomach when he came and he spent himself all over him. Watching it, Jianyu had to bite the inside of his cheek not to follow off that cliff right away.

“Can I come inside you?” he asked him.

Medicine was far enough evolved that all possible side effects of that could be wiped away with a standard compact antiviral pill, but he wanted Saghiza’s agreement. Somehow, it seemed intimate here were he hadn’t really cared before with others.

Saghiza opened his dark eyes, four voids focused on Jianyu’s face.

“Do it.”

That was as much as Jianyu could take.

He fell back into the thick pillows when he’d spent himself inside Saghiza, still gasping. Saghiza remained in his lap, looking a little confounded, and that made Jianyu feel inordinately proud. He ran his hand up Saghiza’s stomach.

“Want me to go check on the radehi? What should they look like?”

“Golden brown,” Saghiza said, his tail trailing through Jianyu’s hair. “Pour us some of the rum, too.”

-

“Jianyu’s here.”

Jianyu smiled at Karla, the waitress who was slipping into her jacket while Saghiza loaded the last plates and glasses into the dishwasher. Six weeks after he’d almost gotten Saghiza killed, he’d made it from regular to someone that at least Saghiza’s favourite co-workers seemed to know about in some capacity – enough that they usually gave him a knowing smile when they walked past him. Of course, the fact that Jianyu now showed up here twenty minutes before closing time three of four times a week, every week, probably became difficult to ignore at some point, too, no matter how much or little Saghiza had told them.

“Thank you, Karla,” Saghiza said. “I’ll close up here. Have a good night.”

“Good night!”

She waved at them as she left. Jianyu fell down on his stool and Saghiza leaned over the bar to kiss him.

“How was work?”

“Exciting as usual. I got to watch over a business meeting. There was a little dick-measuring with corporate security, but I know how to wrap that type around my little finger.”

Saghiza chuckled quietly. Jianyu knew by now that his past had never been a point of conversation between Saghiza and people on Ideal Next. Jianyu was happy that he could provide him a chance to talk freely about it, feel like he could trust someone with it. It was something small he could give Saghiza in return for all the trust Saghiza had placed in him, and the trouble Jianyu had caused.

“Good,” Saghiza said. “I hope it stays quiet. Anything else going on?”

“I put in an order for a fridge. A small one, so I can store your leftovers and have them for lunch the next day.”

He was joking, grinning, even though he’d felt a twinge of nerves when he’d pressed on the button to order. What an asinine thing to focus on, but it really had felt like this was him committing to not running.

Saghiza wiped down the bar. He didn’t answer at first, didn’t look his way. However, Jianyu had seen the way Saghiza’s eyes had narrowed slightly and knew he was pleased.

“That’s useful. I could store some more ingredients at your place, too.”

“Might be worth it now that I got the spots of dried blood out of the carpet. I haven’t managed to kill the plant you gave me yet, either.”

“I’m proud of you. It has been a whole two weeks.” Saghiza looked up. “Do you want to come to my place tonight or should we celebrate the addition to yours?”

“Yours is still nicer.”

Jianyu hadn’t said that he would stay yet and Saghiza hadn’t asked, but he had mentioned at some point that he was trying to convince his boss to give him the next Founding Festival off as well and Jianyu, without thinking, had told him it was a good idea. Neither of them had mentioned it, but that day was almost their anniversary, after all.

No, Jianyu was pretty sure his story with Ideal Next was not finished yet, wouldn’t be before the next Founding Festival, either. Right now, if he did leave, it would only be at Saghiza’s side.


End file.
